Kirk Munroe, a criminal defence lawyer in Windsor, said he and his colleagues run into this type of case now and then.

"It's not unusual to see Americans coming over with loaded handguns," Munroe said. "They're business owners. They've been police officers. They've been military people who have licenses over in Michigan to carry a handgun, forget about it, come over for dinner, and, 'Oh my gosh! They've got a handgun.'

"Welcome to three years in prison."

Still, Munroe hopes the federal government appeals the ruling, so there is clarity on the issue.

The court decision says the law doesn't discriminate, meaning a person keeping a restricted gun with ammunition in their cottage when the license says it should be stored in their home faced the same minimum as a person standing on the street with a gun in their back pocket and the intent to use it.

Dirk Derstine is one of the lawyers who fought the crown on this appeal. He says evidence also shows minimum sentences do not work as a deterrent to crime

"There's a seductive appeal to the idea that all we have to do is ratchet up sentences and these people will quote, unquote, get the message. The difficulty with that it's seductive, but it's also incorrect," Derstine said.

Some agree with minimum sentencing

Back in Windsor, John Elliott works with at-risk youth at the Sandwich Teen Action Centre. He favoured the mandatory sentencing.

"Hey, you do the crime you do the time," he said. "Should a kid have to suffer a sentence like that for a first time mistake? I don't know. But the young people that are using this to do things that they shouldn't, you've got to come down on them hard."

"We reap the benefits of strict laws in regards to all violent crime," he said. "While I think gun violence has probably dipped, it's because of those efforts and because of the efforts of police services."

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